The Magdalen Chapel is arguably the most historically important building in Edinburgh after the Castle and the High Kirk of St Giles. It is one of a very small handful of edifices that have survived intact since before the Scottish Reformation.

The Chapel was built in the 1540s, founded by Jonet Rynd, widow of Michael Macquhen as part of a ‘hospital’ or alms-house for poor, retired tradesmen, providing accommodation and a meagre pension. Most of the beidsmen had been freemen of the Incorporation of Hammermen of Edinburgh, which is the body that governed the establishment from its foundation until it was sold in 1863. The Chapel was used as the meeting house and trades hall for the Hammermen, and also for the Convenery of the Incorporated Trades of the City for more than 250 years.

Donations to the House are recorded on a unique array of gilded ‘Brods’, dating from the 16th century until recent times. The windows include the only pre-Reformation-stained glass in Scotland, that remains largely intact and in its original location.

The Chapel is the site of the very first General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, which was moderated by John Knox himself in December 1560.